From
Speaking Tree – Talk - Osho
The Upanishads are written in Sanskrit; Sanskrit is
the oldest language on earth. The very word `sanskrit' means transformed, adorned, crowned, decorated, refined
but remember the word `transformed'. The language itself was transformed
because so many people attained to the ultimate, and because they were using
the language, something of their joy penetrated into it, something of their
poetry entered into the very cells, the very fibre of the language. Even the
language became transformed, illuminated. It was
bound to happen. Just as it is happening today in the West, languages are
becoming more and more scientific, accurate, mathematical and precise. They
have to be because science is giving them colour, shape and form. If science is
growing, then of course the language in which the science will be expressed
will have to be scientific.
The same happened 5,000 years ago in India with
Sanskrit. So many people became enlightened and they
were all speaking Sanskrit; their
enlightenment entered into it with all its music, poetry, with all its celebration.
Sanskrit became luminous; it is the most poetic and musical language.
A poetic language is just the opposite of a
scientific language. In scientific language every word has to be very precise
in meaning; it has to have only one meaning. In poetic language the word has to
be liquid, flowing, dynamic, not static, allowing many meanings, many
possibilities. The word has to be not precise at all; the more imprecise it is
the better, because then it will be able to express all kinds of nuances.
Hence the Sanskrit sutras can be defined in many
ways, can be commented upon in many ways they allow much playfulness. For
example, there are 800 roots in Sanskrit and out of those thousands of
words have been derived, just as out of one root a tree grows and many branches
and thousands of leaves and hundreds of flowers. Each single root becomes a
vast tree with great foliage.
For example, the root RAM can mean first `to
be calm', second `to rest', third `to delight in', fourth `cause delight to',
fifth `to make love', sixth `to join', seventh `to make happy', eighth `to be
blissful', ninth `to play', tenth `to be peaceful', eleventh `to stand still',
twelfth `to stop, to come to a full stop', and thirteenth `God, divine, the
absolute'. And these are only few of the meanings of the root.
Sometimes the
meanings are related to each other, sometimes not; sometimes even they are
contradictory to each other. Hence the language has a multidimensional
quality to it. You can play with those words and through that play you
can express the inexpressible; the inexpressible can be hinted.
The Sanskrit language is called Devavani, divine
language. Because it is the most poetic, musical language. It happened because so many people used it who were full of inner harmony
. Those words became luminous: they were used by people who were enlightened.
Something of their light filtered to the words, reached to the words; something
of their silence entered the very grammar, the very language they were using.
The script in which Sanskrit is written is called Devanagari; it means `dwelling-place of the gods', and
so it certainly is. Each word has become divine, just because it has been used
by people who had known God or godliness.
(Abridged from I Am That, Osho Times International,
http:www.osho.com)
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